Opinion: Who's really fueling the marijuana 'black market'?

By Gregg Padula

Thursday

Apr 18, 2019 at 11:47 AMApr 18, 2019 at 1:41 PM

I’ve started to notice a profound shift in how law enforcement, voters, even the media, view cannabis.

The compassion and acceptance that initially brought cannabis into the mainstream and led to legalization appears to be headed toward discrimination and incarceration as Gov. Charlie Baker and a handful of law enforcement officials have suddenly become obsessed with aggressively stomping out what they refer to as the “black market,” those selling cannabis illegally. (Although in my opinion, the black market needs an updated product list, removing the word cannabis.)

In the past month alone, several cannabis-related busts have been reported -- such as a Milton woman accused of running a black market marijuana delivery business -- whereas there were seemingly few prior to legalization. So why the sudden shift of focus to punish those operating in what some refer to as a “black market”? Why now -- after decades of relatively peaceful coexistence?

First of all, legal retail cannabis shops have hardly become stable, mainstream entities in the Bay State. There are only a handful of licensed, operational retail cannabis shops in the state, none of which have been open for more than six months. Are we to believe this is an adequate amount of time to make statistical predictions on how legal cannabis is affecting the black market? The legal retail market is so small, it’s easy to create big statistics which look scary when put in the same context as black market data.

The idea that a handful of retail cannabis shops has driven huge numbers of people to suddenly take up using cannabis simply because it’s available is ridiculous. This argument has been disproven time and time again. Police and other law enforcement only think there’s been an explosion in use because people who have been using cannabis for decades are coming out from the shadows, and it’s shocking to them to see how many people are fond of the plant.

The only new drug dealers on the scene are the ones in double-reinforced warehouses. Equipped with the state’s blessing, licensed facilities -- not boogeymen pushers coming out after dark -- are producing metric tons of cannabis per year.

Many would argue “legalization” meant cracking the window just enough for a handful of charlatans to seize control of distribution, similar to a drug cartel, and then lock smaller growers out. We, as American citizens, have become so beaten down by the stripping of our civil liberties that we rarely question authority or big business.

My friend, occasional collaborator and MassCann Press Secretary Maggie Kinsella explained, “An industry becomes legal and regulated to reduce diversion. The state has failed to do so and was repeatedly warned this would happen by the community. Instead of reducing the illicit market, the current regulated industry has exacerbated it. Eighty percent of cannabis purchased in Massachusetts derives from illicit sources. Much of this market could be part of the legal process of ownership if the state fulfilled the promise of an equitable, accessible and inclusive industry. Instead, patients are sitting in jail, consumers are being blamed and potential businesses are targeted waiting for the state to include them in participating. Massachusetts could have begun reducing illicit market activities and created an equitable, inclusive and accessible market. The Legislature needs to tighten up local control to the same priority process the Cannabis Control Commission regulates for Economic Empowerment applicants and zoning to comply with mandatory minimum establishments.”

An argument I continue to come across is that legal cannabis is cleaner, and its origin is known.

Clearly, the public is either not aware or does not care about the dozen-plus violations from these same businesses for mold and pesticides. I started publicly bringing attention to the issue in 2015. The information has been out there; it’s no secret. The fact of the matter is, small-batch cannabis purchased outside the corporate cartel is more often higher quality and cleaner, as it did not grow jammed up among thousands of other plants and the bare hands of employees. Cannabis-related respiratory conditions were rarely seen before the advent of commercial grow facilities.

It's simply not true that there is a sinister wave of reefer dealers who waited until cannabis was legal to launch their underground ventures.

Does anyone else see some irony in the timing of this “excess of cannabis” on the streets? I’m no sleuth, but grow facilities with thousands of pounds of cannabis behind their vaulted gates arrived around the same time as this supposed oversaturation of cannabis. The only “new dealers” are the ones in suits, smiling and selling lies. The corporate cartels. Don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise.

Two Worcester-area lawmakers have proposed the formation of a marijuana task force that would “focus on ways to support legal market participation and improve public health and safety,” according to a Telegram & Gazette article. “The revenue that’s coming in is not meeting expectation,” said state Sen. Michael O. Moore, D-Millbury. “The goal here is to try to implement the law.”

How I translate that -- the state wants to fight alongside the same corporate mega-grow facility CEOs responsible for an alleged surge in “black market” cannabis sales.

Rather than let things settle for the residents negatively affected by these facilities, the state is assembling a task force to combat cannabis, even though no significant problems have occurred. Police are going to be calling upon Drug Recognition Experts -- individuals who have the power to put you in jail for impaired driving without any concrete evidence, as no breath test for detecting recent cannabis use exists and signs of its impairment can be difficult to recognize.

Prohibition did not work, so assembling a post-legalization task force going after businesses because they have no way of entering the market amounts to Prohibition 2.0. It is time the state takes responsibility for creating the current problems, drop the illicit market battle cry and listen to the cannabis community -- not law enforcement officials with their own agenda or dispensary associations who are only concerned about keeping the pie to themselves.

Back in June 2018, I shared my predictions regarding retail cannabis legalization and its potential effect on the black market in one of my columns. I still stand behind its message that everything will balance out ... it may just take some time. But now, with state officials and law enforcement going on the offensive and arresting residents before this balance has time to take place, the recipe changes and so the results will be altered. I believe the most-important responsibility for both law enforcement and the cannabis community is to keep cannabis and cannabis-based products out of the hands of anyone younger than 21, keep an eye on environmental damage and make sure what’s being sold legally is safe.

We are in the midst of the worst opioid epidemic in modern history. and yet a marijuana task force is being assembled. Maybe the big picture is just too big for those with limited vision.

Gregg Padula is an employee of GateHouse Media New England. He has experience in several areas of the cannabis industry, and now serves as an advocate for both patients' and workers’ rights. He can be reached at gpadula@wickedlocal.com.

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